There they stood shoulder to shoulder, several dozens of them, dressed in rubber shark costumes with the dorsal fins cut off. The activists who gathered outside a high-end restaurant in Hong Kong Harbor bore placards and shouted “stop selling!” They meant shark fin soup, which remains a popular dish in China.

The protest was organized by the conservationist group WildAid to raise awareness of the world’s sharks, some 70 million of which are being killed for their fins every year. Local conservationists say that concentrated campaigns against shark fin soup has led to a 40% drop in the consumption of the status dish over the past five years.

Leading Malaysian conservationists, too, continue to speak up on behalf of the ocean’s beleaguered residents. “Healthy oceans are critical for sustaining life, eliminating poverty and promoting prosperity. Oceans and seas are also the largest carbon dioxide sink,” Mohamed Idris, president of Sahabat Alam Malaysia in Penang, observes in a recent op-ed, reeling off a litany of threats to our oceans and their inhabitants: overfishing, plastic waste, water pollution, coastal development, climate change.

If we all say no to shark fin soup, we can make a big difference. If we make sure that our actions do not contribute, either directly or indirectly, to any further harm to the world’s oceans, we can make an even bigger difference.

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Clean Malaysia is an independent online news site covering all aspects of Malaysia’s environmental landscape. We are dedicated to delivering news, analysis and opinions to both Malaysians and the international community. Our mission is to raise awareness of Malaysia as a tropical natural beauty but also to bring to light environmental dangers and encourage a debate about the future of Malaysia’s sustainable development.